NOTE: THIS IS LIKELY THE LAST BLOG YOU WILL SEE FOR A FEW DAYS SINCE WE SUSPECT THERE IN NO WiFi IN THE SERENGETI. HOWEVER, WE WILL CONTINUE THEM EACH DAY SO EXPECT THEM TO SUDDENLY APPEAR.
We have an early morning start as usual getting ready to head out for our Chimpanzee Walk in Kibale (pronounced Chi-bali) which is an 8:00 a.m. start. The roads don't disappoint us with the challenging conditions and my buddy Fred successfully navigates us through the bumpiest roads yet. The terrain around this areas is absolutely unique with crops of all assortment on inclines and terraced fields since the areas is the home to 50 craters and extremely hilly. The tea crops look absolutely manicured and the banana fields with their gigantic leaves overwhelm the region. The roads are soft, dry, orange dirt and most of the borders of the crop field are accented with an orange tinge.
Fred gets us to the forest ranger station on time and we debark for our next venture. After receiving the strict guidelines for interacting withe chimps, we are part of a party of 6 (Sergio from Mozambique and Mumcie from Rwanda, both spaniards who share our sick sense of humor and Anita a Ugandan student). Our guide has a name none of us can pronounce so he says call him Ali but adds "I'm not a Muslim".
We get our instructions from the head forest ranger and off we go in the jeep a bit further into the forest. The road is lined by dozens of baboons who looked at us with amusement. Their "bare asses" is a little off-putting but other than that, they are neat looking. We only see them on the road and not in the forest because chimpanzees are really territorial. Ali takes us into the forest and we don't go in too far before a chimp is spotted high up in a tree (and I mean high). Within minutes all of the trekking parties has joined us and we are wondering what gives. The forest apparently has 1050 chimps and here we all are congregating around this one! Our chimp "walk" has turned into a chimp "wait and see" and our party starts hinting strongly (not me) we don't want to stand around in a pack. This proved to be a very wise maneuver and our guide takes us deep into the forest resulting in our last hour of the walk interacting with at least 15 chimps which a lot of we caught on video. Once more, Di came within a foot of a chimp (I'm beginning to think it's her smell. LOL). Anyhow, these chimps are bigger than you think and weigh in about 100 to 120 lbs. They gave us a lot of Tarzan moves and hooting that echoed throughout the forest. We also found out that they are not only territorial but vicious fighters. Ali was telling us that the Red Tail Colobus feels it has to defend himself but is no match for the much bigger chimpanzees. The colobus has only 4 fingers with no thumb and apparently the chimps shake the branches that the colobus is on until it loses it's grip and falls to the ground. Another chimp, grabs it by the tail, spins it around until it is dizzy and disoriented, kills it and then eats it. That's life in the jungle.
The chimpanzee walk only ties up the morning and it allows us to return to our resort and once more swim in a mountain pool with an unbelievable vista. We have lunch outdoors over looking the crater lake under a loggia. Later on we have a relaxing dip in the pool and the girls catch a bit of sun tanning.
It's been a great day and we are looking forward to heading to the Serengeti tomorrow which will be largely a travel day. We will not likely have Internet for most of the Serengeti so I suspect we will post a number of days events that will show up at the same time.
Before leaving Uganda, I would like to comment on the people. We consciously did not photograph their abodes since "a picture paints a thousand words" and we wouldn't want to misrepresent them. Also, they don't like you taking pictures of them because they think that you are going to make money from it. Their mode of transportation is all over the map with primarily walking bare feet or in loose sandals followed by bicycles. And what they will put on a bike or a motorcycle is unbelievable. Up to 6, yes 6 people on a bike or a motor scooter or an incredible amount of produce or bananas. And and as for cars, anything goes. We passed a car with 3 people and 2 goats in it and our driver says he has seen up to 14 people in a car. They are kinda of spoilt, aren't they?
For sure their lives are modest by any standards but they seem genuine and happy. We were always met with courtesy, not only at the lodges and tours, but by the population in general constantly waving at us. They appreciate what tourism does for them and they are grateful. At the same time they are diligent workers, be a tea leaf picker, a hoer of wood or a banana farmer. They work hard but at a slow pace. They work well as a team and their insane road conditions is offset by always giving way to each other. There is no horn honking, no yelling at each other and we never saw a sign of temper. These people have been through a lot and the tourism really got nailed by the Ebola scare and the terrorism threat that was non-existent in their country. We do hope that things recover for them soon because the have a lot to offer.
We leave Uganda knowing that we got our money's worth but more important great memories and exposure to genuinely nice people.
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